Haruspex

A haruspex was a person trained to practise divination by looking closely at the parts inside animals that were sacrificed, especially the livers of sheep and poultry. This special way of finding messages or signs is called haruspicy and was an important part of the Ancient Roman religion.

Many ancient cultures, including the Babylonians near the East, also looked at livers to find meaning, calling this practice hepatoscopy or hepatomancy.

The Romans learned this idea mostly from the Etruscan religion, which was one of three main parts of what they called the disciplina Etrusca.

Etymology

The word haruspex comes from an old Latin word hīra, meaning "entrails" or "intestines", and the root spec- meaning "to watch" or "observe". A related Greek word, hēpatoskopia, comes from hēpato- meaning "liver" and skop- meaning "to examine".

Ancient Near East

Further information: Bārûtu and Orientalizing period

The Babylonians were well-known for a special way of looking for signs called hepatoscopy. They would look at the liver of animals to try to understand what might happen in the future. This idea spread from place to place, showing how different cultures shared knowledge long ago.

One old model of a sheep's liver made of clay, from between 1900 and 1600 BCE, is kept in the British Museum. This practice was also used in the religion of the Hittites, where many models of livers have been found, written in both Akkadian and the Hittite language.

Ancient Italy

Roman haruspicy was a special way to talk with the gods. Instead of just guessing what would happen next, it helped people know if the gods were happy or not. Before doing big things, like going to war, Romans would kill animals and look at their inside parts to see what the gods thought. They looked mostly at the liver, but also at the lungs and heart. If the liver looked smooth and full, it was a good sign. If it looked rough or shrunken, it was not a good sign.

This idea started with the Etruscans, a group of people who lived in Italy before the Romans. We know about their ways from old writings and special objects. One important object is a bronze model of a sheep’s liver with the names of gods written on it. Later, the Roman leader Emperor Claudius tried to bring back this old practice.

Northeast Africa

In parts of southwest Ethiopia and nearby areas of South Sudan, several groups of people have a tradition of looking at animal parts to learn about what might happen in the future. Some of these groups include the Suri, Mursi, Topsa, Nyangatom, Didinga, Murle, Me'en, Turkana, Konso, Dime, Karamojong, Dodoth, and Kalenjin people.

This practice of reading animal parts has also been found in Kenya, among the Kamba and the Kipsikis.